Approximately 15,000 law enforcement canine units presently operate in the United States alone. One of the inventors is an active police officer engaged in handling canines in law enforcement operations. These officers along with their canine partners are called upon routinely to search for evidence, to search for suspects, and at times to apprehend dangerous individuals in locations that present a wide range of dangers. The primary role of a canine unit is keeping officers safe and searching areas humans cannot readily access or must do so at great risk. Although a certain amount of risk is inherent in this line of work, mitigating or eliminating that risk is constantly on the mind of the officers, their families, and their departments.
One of the most dangerous situations an officer can encounter is an unknown threat in an attic or other location having an exposed point of entry and exit. As used herein, “attic” shall refer broadly to any location intended for deployment of a subject, such as a canine or other animal, presenting difficulty or danger for human access. Quite simply, there is no “safe” way to get into an attic and search it or to carry and deploy a canine for searching it. Attics and like locations present dangerous areas for a suspect to ambush officers. Canine units are often called upon to conduct these types of searches for many reasons. First, access to an attic can be challenging. Oftentimes, you will find an attic door in the top of a small closet or in the middle of a narrow hallway. Second, access to these attics may be in the form of a rickety attic ladder, or a step ladder found on the premise. Third, the attic space itself may be very low, not even allowing an officer to stand. Dogs are able to fit into much smaller spaces, defeating the first and third problems. But the problem remains getting the dog into the attic.
In operation, it is not an easy task for an officer to carry and lift up a canine into an attic. First you must remember this is not the family pet you are dealing with. In a tactical situation, the canine is “keyed up”, meaning it is in work mode making it difficult and possibly dangerous to manage. Typically such dogs are not comfortable being carried much less being carried up a ladder it is not natural for the dog. Also, for the handler picking up an 80 pound animal trained and ready to fight is no easy task especially in a dynamic situation occurring around the dog in a law enforcement activity. There may be alarms going off, noise from the police radios, commands being shouted to the subject hiding in the attic, and numerous other background noises. Even without all of these variables, a handler must navigate a ladder while holding 80 pounds of canine while engaging a threat. There is no way to know which individuals are merely hiding in an attic, and which plan to use deadly force to keep from getting caught. How to manage climbing a ladder with a dog, then safely putting the dog on the floor of the attic without exposing the handler to the possible threat waiting at the top is a problem with no current reliable solution.
Presently, most officers must place themselves at greatest risk to deploy a tool designed to keep an officer safe. That tool is the dog. Officers will stick their heads into an attic opening and “take a quick look”, before going back down and getting their dogs. Others wrestle their dogs up a ladder, risking back injury, frustration bites by the dog, and falls to both the handler and the dog. Others risk slipping into the attic and fashioning some “made on the spot” hoist system to raise the dog up into the attic where the dog can finally conduct a search. Another common solution is to place a dog on a level platform and wrestle the dog overhead, hoping he does not jump off in midair. This method takes hours of training, rehearsal and experience of numerous officers including the handler and the dog. Others just try to do a quick search themselves, leaving the dog out completely. The history of canine divisions is sadly filled with stories of officers who have been seriously injured or lost their lives using one of the techniques above.
What is needed is a deployment system that is portable, easy and safe to use, while being effective and versatile in operation.